BikeRide.com Cycling Blog

I made it out to the first race of the Pleasant Valley Time Trial Series tonight. I dusted my bike off last night, and found my adapter to pump up the tire on my disk wheel, got my aero helmet, and had everything set aside. I planned to slip out of work a little early and pick up my bike and cycling clothes and get out to the race with plenty of time to warm up.

I ended up getting stuck on a conference call until 5:15, so I jetted out of work as fast as I could, and only got to the race 15 minutes before the first rider set off. I quickly registered, pinned on my number and changed into my time trial skinsuit in the car. I pumped up my tires, grabbed my keys, locked the car, and shut the door.

Problem was I left my helmet in the car and the keys I grabbed were my office keys and my car keys were in the car. So there I was with just minutes to spare until my start time with no warm up, and no helmet. There were only a couple of people left in the parking lot at this point, and I shouted over to Paul to see if he had a spare helmet. Luckily he had one, but it was a size small.

I shoved it onto my big head and adjusted the straps as far as they would go. but it was still tight. I sprinted around the parking lot to get the blood flowing a little, then made it over to the start line. I was the last to go.

With no warm up, I didn’t want to start too fast. I tried to focus on my breathing and keep from going too far into the red. I ended up passing one rider near the end of the race. My time was 19:24 for 8 miles which was good enough for 3rd on the night and 2 minutes faster than my time from last years first race. I hope I can improve upon my time by at least a minute by the end of the summer. My course PR is 18:24 and the record for my age group is 18:11 which I think is in reach. An aero helmet and a warm up should help a little too.

When I got back to the parking lot, it just so happened that Jim had a wire coat hanger in his car, and I was able to unlock my door pretty quickly.